Health

On Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, requesting greater flexibility for U.S. hospitals to access provider relief funds... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s tougher stance against COVID-19 fraud and misdeeds is showing up in recent announcements of prison sentences for people making false claims for million-dollar government loans. So far this month, they have included a former Seattle,... Read More

TRUMBULL COUNTY, Ohio — An Ohio federal judge overseeing a class action lawsuit over the opioid crisis on Monday refused to overturn a jury verdict that held major pharmacy chains liable for contributing to the addictions and overdoses blamed for... Read More

WASHINGTON — A recent report from AMSURG, a recognized leader in the strategic and operational management of surgery centers, finds in 2021 there were increases in advanced stage colorectal cancer and precancerous growths in adults of all ages when compared... Read More

GENEVA (AP) — An expert group convened by the World Health Organization said Tuesday it “strongly supports urgent and broad access” to booster doses, in a reversal of the U.N. agency’s previous insistence that boosters weren’t necessary and contributed to... Read More

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Monday the availability of roughly $1.47 billion in competitive grant funds aimed at transitioning public transportation fleets and facilities to clean energy. Harris made remarks on the clean transit push during a... Read More

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M., makes no effort to hide her enthusiasm for her current job, undersecretary for rural development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Six months after her confirmation, the Democrat from Las Cruces, New... Read More

A report was released this week from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a collective of 270 authors from 67 countries that annually assess the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and human communities. The report — which is... Read More

This week the World Health Organization held a webinar to discuss the launch of its second report on the Global Evidence Review on Health and Migration, which examines access to health care for migrants and refugees under current health policies... Read More

New findings from researchers at the University of Bristol show that those infected with COVID could have different variants hidden in different parts of the body, as if the virus is playing an ultimate game of ‘hide and seek’ with... Read More

A new preprint study from New York State Department of Health shows that the Pfizer vaccine did not prevent infection and hospitalizations in kids up to age 11 as effectively as it did for older age ranges, including those aged... Read More

This week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a decision regarding a patent dispute about who the first scientists were to invent the use of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in eukaryotic cells.  The dispute is... Read More

Earlier this year, the Biden administration stepped up prevention efforts by promising to provide 500 million COVID-19 tests to Americans, with up to four free tests per household.  Data collected through the start of this month shows that more than... Read More

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a new warning that the invasion happening in the Russia/Ukraine region may increase the risk of cyberattacks in the U.S. health system.  “Every organization in the United States is at risk from... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Overdose deaths, most of them attributable to opioid abuse, surged in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported Wednesday. In the latest edition of its annual Drug Overdose... Read More

WASHINGTON — Hours after President Joe Biden declared “it’s time for Americans to get back to work” in his State of the Union address, the White House on Wednesday unveiled its updated plan for dealing with the next phase of... Read More

Omicron is fading away, and so are Americans' worries about COVID-19. As coronavirus pandemic case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths continue to plummet, fewer people now than in January say they are concerned that they will be infected after the rise and fall... Read More

WASHINGTON — It’ll be masks off for President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address on Tuesday as the House is lifting the mask mandate that has been in place almost since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brian... Read More

Most Americans live in places where healthy people, including students in schools, can safely take a break from wearing masks under new U.S. guidelines released Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the new set of measures for... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive on Tuesday compelling the state child welfare agency to investigate reports of “gender-transitioning procedures” as child abuse, but some district attorneys are refusing to comply. The directive followed Texas Attorney... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter, meaning most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor... Read More

More than half of U.S. abortions are now done with pills rather than surgery, an upward trend that spiked during the pandemic with the increase in telemedicine, a report released Thursday shows. In 2020, pills accounted for 54% of all... Read More

WASHINGTON — As the nation waits on tenterhooks to find out how the Supreme Court will rule on a Mississippi case to decide whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional, advocates and opponents of abortion laws across the... Read More

SmartWater CSI is a traceable liquid nanotechnology that is invisible to the naked eye but shows up as yellow-green under ultraviolet light.  The forensic spray, which contains a unique signature for each user, is now helping courts gather the evidence... Read More

A new report from PatientRightsAdvocate.org finds that only about 14% of hospitals are currently in compliance with federal price transparency regulations.  This January marked one year since the Hospital Price Transparency rule went into effect. The rule is an Affordable Care Act provision that... Read More

A new report from researchers at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute finds that children will suffer if their parents and caregivers in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are not eligible for redetermination, as the coverage requirement may be set... Read More

A new study released this week in JAMA Internal Medicine finds ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, has failed to treat individuals with COVID-19.   To conduct the open-label study, researchers enrolled high-risk patients with COVID-19 from 20 public hospitals and COVID-19 quarantine centers in... Read More

On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidance on vaccine dosing intervals for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to be spaced out at least eight weeks apart between the first and second doses.  The decision to update the... Read More

Although the surge in omicron infections has been declining over the past few weeks, leaders at the World Health Organization have issued new warnings regarding another new variant of concern, known as BA.2.  Although still classified as omicron, the BA.2 strain differs... Read More

On Wednesday two companies, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, said they plan to submit a new COVID-19 vaccine for U.S. and European regulatory approval. This followed Phase 3 efficacy trials that showed promise of protection both as a primary series and a... Read More